The following includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention(s). It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art, or material, to the presently described or claimed inventions, or that any publication or document that is specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of lids for bins and more specifically relates to an automatic bin lid opener system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various grains and dry materials are produced and used extensively in the agricultural business. These materials are produced and stored in volume, usually in silos or bins. Most often, there are multiple storage bins in operation on the average sized farm. The dry material that is usually stored in these bins dictates the design for the bins, which generally has a cylindrical sidewall with a conical shaped bottom that funnels the dry material, such as grain, to a bottom opening. The bottom opening has some type of hatch or closing device. To put the material in the bin, there is a top lid that is opened, which may be used also for introduction of air for aeration of the stored material. When a bin needs to be opened, a farmer or farm hand has to climb a ladder to the top of the bin and remove the bin lid. The task of climbing to the top of these bins can be dangerous, and at the very least, time consuming and laborious. These bins can be thirty feet, forty feet, or higher. These bin lids have been opened this way for as long as there have been bins. The labor and the safety factor are becoming increasingly more of a problem as the age of farmers increase with time. Fewer farmers are entering the field at a young age choosing rather to enter other fields that require less hours and labor. A solution is needed to add convenience, reduce labor, and increase safety when opening bin lids.
Various attempts have been made to solve the above-mentioned problems such as those found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,784 to Eugene B. Pollock, U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,839 to James O. Candy, Sr., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,327,522 to William W. Meadows. This art is representative of remote grain bin lid openers. None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the invention as claimed.
Ideally, a remote grain bin lid opener should provide a reduction of labor for the user and be programmable to operate according to pre-programmed settings, while optionally being operable from remote locations via a cell phone, and yet, would operate reliably and be manufactured at a modest expense. Thus, a need exists for a reliable automatic bin lid opener system to avoid the above-mentioned problems.